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Fantastic Four (2005 film)
Fantastic Four (sometimes stylized as Fantastic 4) is a 2005 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics team of the same name, co-produced by Marvel Studios, Atlas Entertainment, and Mosaic Media Group, and distributed by New Line Cinema. The film was directed by Peyton Reed and stars Ioan Gruffudd, Ali Larter, Robert Kazinsky, Hayden Christensen, Alexandru Papadopol, and Jaime Pressly. The film details the origin of the Fantastic Four — Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm — in which during an accident on an experimental rocket, they were all given superpowers through exposure to cosmic rays. Meanwhile, Doctor Doom, Reed's longtime rival, vows his revenge. This was the second live-action Fantastic Four film to be filmed. After a failed attempt, titled The Fantastic Four, a B-movie produced by Roger Corman that ultimately went unreleased, Marvel Studios reacquired the rights to the characters. Marvel announced they would be self-financing the film, with New Line Cinema serving as distributor. Filming took place in San Jose, California and New York City from June to October 2004. Fantastic Four was released in the United States on July 8, 2005. It received positive reviews and was a commercial success, grossing $330.6 million worldwide. A sequel, Fantastic Four: The Coming of Galactus, was released in 2007. Plot The film opens in 1992 at Fordham University, where a young Victor von Doom meets Reed Richards and Ben Grimm. They develop a dislike for each other. Doom becomes obsessed with developing a machine that could project the astral form of a being into other dimensions. Reed points out a flaw in Doom's calculations, but Doom arrogantly ignores his warnings, feeling Reed is trying to upstage him. The machine explodes, scarring Doom's face, and he was soon expelled for conducting unethical experiments. Doom blamed Richards for the destruction of his face as well as his expulsion. In the present time, Reed lives in San Jose, California, and has begun developing plans to build a starship for interstellar travel, which he named the Marvel-1. While the rocket seemed like it was possible to travel to other star systems, Reed's financiers were losing interest. Reed's girlfriend Susan Storm and her younger brother Johnny insisted on joining Reed on the flight. Reed's old friend Ben Grimm was convinced to pilot the ship. Once in space, the Marvel-1 was bombarded by a wave of cosmic radiation. The craft crashed back down to Earth in Ithaca, New York. Emerging from the ruins of the spaceship, they discovered the radiation had mutated their bodies and had given them remarkable new abilities. Reed gained the ability to stretch his body and limbs, Johnny was able to fly and become engulfed in flames he could control, and Sue was able to bend light around her body and become invisible. Ben gained incredible strength and durability, but his body was tragically transformed. He now had a muscular orange, rock-like hide. The quartet was quickly picked up by the government and was then contained in a government quarantine facility for those exposed by cosmic rays under the command of Reed's colleague General Walter Montgomery. Having demonstrated the benefit of their new powers, Reed manages to convince General Montgomery into releasing the team and allowing them to operate freely. They dub themselves as the Fantastic Four; consisting of Mr. Fantastic (Reed), Invisible Woman (Sue), the Human Torch (Johnny), and The Thing (Ben). Reed was the team's resident genius and leader of the group. Ben was initially bitter about his mutation in a monster and was frequently angry or depressed. Johnny was frequently rebellious leaving Sue to act as the team's den mother to the group. Reed rents out the top floors of the Baxter Building in New York City as their new headquarters. In Haasenstadt, Latveria, Victor von Doom —now going by Doctor Doom — learns that his rival Reed Richards and his flight crew had gained super-human powers, and starts to seek revenge. Meanwhile, a ship belonging to the Ovoids crashes in the Carpathian Mountains. Doom encounters the Ovoids and offers to have their ship fixed if they can teach him a mental technique to swap bodies with another individual. Doom then sets a plan in motion to use this power against the Fantastic Four. Feeling guilty over transforming his best friend into a monstrous form, Reed began investigating how to return him to human form. However, the group began to show signs of falling apart, particularly Reed's relationship with Sue, which Sue believed was taking a back seat to the establishment of the Fantastic Four. After Johnny, Ben and Sue stormed out on Reed, Doom arrives at the headquarters and attacks the group. Doom then used the Ovoids technique to switch bodies with Reed then tricked the Fantastic Four in subduing Reed -- now trapped in Doom's body -- and subduing him in an airtight container that Doom planned to have him suffocate in. Doom then convinced the Fantastic Four that by using his shrink ray he could potentially boost their powers to great levels, intending to use the ray to shrink them to nothingness. However, Richards broke free and caused his teammates to doubt in the situation. When the Human Torch created a heat mirage of a stick of TNT which "Doctor Doom" selflessly shielded his teammates from, this convinced the group that Doom had indeed taken possession of their leader's body. With this revelation, the process instantly reversed. In trying to escape his foes, Doom becomes victim of his own shrink ray, seemingly shrinking away to nothing. In reality, Doom really shrinks down so much that he passes through the dimensional barrier into the Microverse where he ended up on the world of Sub-Atomica. There he manages to wrest control of the planet from the king who lived there and began plotting revenge against the Fantastic Four. He uses a shrink ray to cause the team to shrink down to size. The team learns of Doom's conquest of Sub-Atomica. The Fantastic Four liberates Sub-Atomica from Doom's control forcing Doom to flee back to their universe. There Doom prepares a trap for the Fantastic Four upon their return. Sending out androids to distract the group, they also serve to scan their DNA enabling Doom to utilize a massive airship that uses disintegration beams that were keyed into the Fantastic Four's DNA to prevent them from boarding the ship. Doom also makes a point to capture The Thing's girlfriend, Alicia Masters, to keep as a hostage. Doom then demands that the United States surrender to him, but when the president refused, Doom activates a device that affects the electrical systems all over the country. Eventually, the Fantastic Four comes up with a means to stop Doom: using a serum to temporarily change the Thing back into Ben Grimm, he manages to slip past the disintegrator ray and shut it off. The Fantastic Four then storm the airship and free Alicia. While battling Doom, he attempts to escape but falls out of the ship to his demise. The Fantastic Four decides to use their powers to better humanity. Reed proposes marriage to Susan, who accepts and they share a kiss. Cast *Ioan Gruffudd as Dr. Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic *Ali Larter as Susan Storm / Invisible Woman *Robert Kazinsky as Ben Grimm / The Thing *Hayden Christensen as Johnny Storm / Human Torch *Alexandru Papadopol as Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom *Jaime Pressly as Alicia Masters Andre Braugher portrays General Walter Montgomery. Fantastic Four co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance as Willie Lumpkin, the postal worker who greets the team on their way to the Baxter Building elevator. Rapper MF DOOM makes a cameo appearance at the end of the film as a club performer. More coming soon Production In 1983, producer Bernd Eichinger met with Stan Lee at his home in Los Angeles to explore obtaining an option for a movie based on the Fantastic Four. The option was not available until three years later when Eichinger's Constantin Film company obtained it from Marvel Comics for a price the producer called "not enormous", and which has been estimated to be $250,000. Warner Bros and Columbia Pictures showed interest but were cautious of Eichinger's $40–45 million budget. With the option scheduled to expire on December 31, 1992, Eichinger asked Marvel for an extension. With none forthcoming, Eichinger planned to retain his option by producing a low-budget Fantastic Four film, reasoning, he said in 2005, "They didn't say I had to make a big movie." In 1992 he approached B-movie specialist Roger Corman on the idea of producing the film on a $5 million budget in order to keep the rights, which he eventually decided to bring down to $1 million. In 1994, the adaptation, titled The Fantastic Four, had its trailer released to theaters, and its cast and director went on a promotional tour, however, the film was not officially released. The film was accused of being an ashcan copy, meaning it was only made to keep the license. Lee and Eichinger stated that the actors had no idea of the situation, instead believing they were creating a proper release. In 1995, producer Avi Arad announced that Marvel Studios had reacquired the film rights and confirmed that they would be providing the money for a big-budget adaptation of Fantastic Four, with New Line Cinema distributing. Comic book writer Mark Waid was hired to write the script. Peter Segal was hired to direct in April 1997, and was replaced by Sam Weisman by the end of the year. In February 1999, Raja Gosnell was hired to direct. However, Gosnell decided to do Scooby Doo instead and dropped out in October 2000. He was replaced by Tim Story in April 2001, who departed in July 2003. Peyton Reed was signed to direct in April 2004. Release The American premiere of Fantastic Four was moved from July 1, 2005, to the week of July 8 to avoid competition with Steven Spielberg's motion picture War of the Worlds, during its first week. Fantastic Four opened in 3,602 movie theaters in the United States and increased to 3,619 theaters in the following week. Box office In paid attendance, Fantastic Four was a commercial success, and achieved the top position in gross income, making $56,061,504 during its first weekend, from 3,602 theaters. By the end of 2005, Fantastic Four had accumulated a gross income of about $330,579,700 from theaters around the world, about $154,696,080 of this coming in the United States. Critical response Coming soon Accolades At the Saturn Awards, Fantastic Four was nominated for Best Science Fiction Film but lost the trophy to Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which also stars Hayden Christensen. It was given two nominations at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards including Best Hero for Ali Larter and Best On-Screen Team for Larter, Robert Kazinsky, Hayden Christensen and Ioan Gruffudd. Home release Fantastic Four was released on VHS and DVD on December 6, 2005. It was later released on Blu-ray on November 14, 2006. Category:2000s Category:Marvel Cinematic Universe Category:New Line Cinema Category:Fantatstic Four